1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid ejection method and a liquid ejecting apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Color inkjet printers are already well known as representative liquid ejection apparatuses. These color inkjet printers are provided with a print head, which is an example of an inkjet-type ejection head, for ejecting ink, which is an example of a liquid, from nozzles, and are configured so as to record images and characters, for example, by ejecting ink onto print paper, which is an example of a medium.
The print head is supported on a carriage in a state with the nozzle face in which the nozzles are formed in opposition to the print paper, and is moved (in a main scan) in the width direction of the print paper along a guide member, ejecting ink in synchronization with this main scan.
Moreover, color inkjet printers that allow so-called borderless printing, in which the entire surface of the print paper is targeted for printing, have become popular in recent years because, among other things, they allow an output result of an image that is comparable to a photograph to be obtained. Borderless printing for example allows printing to be carried out by ejecting ink without leaving borders at the four edges of the print paper.
In case of performing borderless printing, since printing is carried out with respect to the entire surface of the print paper, it is important that no borders are created on the end sections of the print paper being printed. In order to do so, it is advantageous to prepare print data that is somewhat larger than the print paper, i.e., that has somewhat of a margin compared to the size of the print paper, and to print on the print paper using such print data, giving consideration to situations in which the print paper is supplied in a slanted (skewed) manner.
Further, in order to alleviate the problem caused when adopting the above-mentioned method, that is, the problem that ink is wasted because printing is performed in regions outside the print paper, it is also advantageous to detect the position of the end of the print paper using a detector such as a sensor, and change the starting position and/or the terminating position for ejecting ink in accordance with the detected end position.
However, in adopting the above-mentioned measure, ink will be wasted if the starting position and/or the terminating position for ejecting ink from the print head is determined without giving any consideration to the feed amount by which the print paper is fed using a paper feed motor after the position of the end of the print paper has been detected.
More specifically, the appropriate starting position or the terminating position for ejecting ink when giving consideration to such aspects as not to create any unnecessary borders in the print paper while causing no waste of ink will change according to the magnitude of the feed amount by which the print paper is fed by the paper feed motor after the position of the end of the print paper has been detected. Despite such a fact, if the starting position or the terminating position for ejecting ink is determined irrelevant to the feed amount, the timing at which ink ejection is started will be excessively advanced and the timing at which the ink ejection is terminated will be excessively delayed as a result of placing too much importance on trying to keep unnecessary borders from being created on the print paper without taking the magnitude of the feed amount into consideration. This gives rise to the problem that ink is wasted.